New Tool Helps Manage Java Applications

Sapient's MC4J technology simplifies the process of monitoring and maintaining Java applications written to JMX.

Sapient Corp. on Tuesday took a new technology for managing Java applications and released it to the open-source community.
The technology, MC4J (Management Console for Java), is designed to simplify the process of monitoring and maintaining Java applications written to JMX (Java Management Extensions), said officials with the Cambridge, Mass., company.

JMX enables developers to build tools for distributed, Web-based products that manage applications, devices and other services, according to Sun Microsystems Inc. JMX is an optional package to the Java 2 Standard Edition, Sun said.

Greg Hinkle, a technology specialist with Sapients internal research and development team and the lead architect for MC4J, said his company has not used MC4J on any client engagements yet because its only about two weeks old, but the company has a similar Web version of the same tool that has worked well.
Hinkle said an internal enterprise Java framework provides technical services commonly required in large applications.
"MC4J has provided a graphical view into these technical services and provides the capability to tune and monitor those services for specific client projects," Hinkle said. "An example would be monitoring queue throughputs and depths of highly utilized services in order to reduce the performance impact of logging or messaging. Another example would be the use of this application to cause cache services to refresh and load updated information."

The MC4J technology is available at http://mc4j.sourceforge.net.

Darryl K. Taft covers the development tools and developer-related issues beat from his office in Baltimore. He has more than 10 years of experience in the business and is always looking for the next scoop. Taft is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and was named 'one of the most active middleware reporters in the world' by The Middleware Co. He also has his own card in the 'Who's Who in Enterprise Java' deck.